Aung San Suu Kyi in first foreign trip in 24 years

Following Ms Suu Kyi’s victory in landmark parliamentary by-elections last
month, the trip to Thailand is being seen as a vote of confidence on her
part in the seriousness of reforms introduced by the new government, even
though it is dominated by former military figures.

“She would not take the risk of the leaving if she wasn’t absolutely certain
she would be allowed to return,” said Suzanne DiMaggio, a vice president of
the Asia Society.

Ms Suu Kyi, 66, last travelled overseas in 1988, shortly before protests
erupted which propelled her to the front of the opposition movement to
military rule. In 1989, she was put under house arrest, where she spent most
of the subsequent two decades.

During intermittent periods of freedom, she declined opportunities to go
abroad in the certainty that she would not be permitted to re-enter Burma.

In 1999, she stayed at home even as her husband, the academic Michael Aris,
was dying of cancer in Britain. The junta had refused him a visa to visit
Burma since 1995.

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